Introduction of the 1833 to 1846 Census of Residents
The records of San Juan’s 1833 to 1846 Census of Residents are available on the FamilySearch website. However, you know these records are not adequately organized if you have researched these films. It can be a bit overwhelming. Not only are they not organized, but there are also duplicate films in various locations. For example, I found a set of books filmed under San Juan and duplicates of the same books in another film mixed with Utuado. Therefore, I decided to extract, index, and organize them. Understanding this is a huge undertaking, I will do my best to make them available. Don’t hesitate to contact me directly if anyone wants to volunteer and assist me. This will make it easier for all of us to research those areas.
Below are two films I went through and organized. The census is for the years 1833, 1839, and 1846. It documents the residents of that period and what is present-day Old San Juan. There are ten films in total. As I find more, I will update the list, although I believe I have them all listed.
The second section continues a previous film I researched, and then there is another film I located with an additional census of residents. If anyone knows about other films I may have missed, please make me aware. I intend to eventually create a menu on the home page to organize these articles better. Finally, a special thank you to Sra. Rachel Rose for her assistance in investigating the maps of Old San Juan.
Early History of Old San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico, is the oldest continuously inhabited post-European city in United States territory and the second oldest in the entire Western Hemisphere. Since the Spanish founded it in 1519, San Juan has served as the capital city of Puerto Rico. Many of the oldest post-contact buildings and structures in the United States are within its 74-block radius. San Juan evolved from a frontier community to become a crucial Spanish outpost and port until the United States annexed Puerto Rico in 1898 at the end of the Spanish-American War.1
Puerta de Tierra
Puerta de Tierra is a subdistrict occupying the eastern portion of the Islet of San Juan and the barrio of San Juan Antiguo in the municipality of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The name “Puerta de Tierra” ( Spanish for land gate ) derives from the former eastern gated entrance to the walled city of San Juan, where Plaza Colón (formerly Santiago Square, is named after the Puerta de Santiago ) is today.
1833 to 1846 Census of Residents: Film Number 1389436, Items 17-195
- Censo de familias Caja 54 Barrio La Marina 1839-1841 Barrio Santo Domingo 1833 Barrio Santa Barbara 1833
- Districts
- La Marina
- Santo Domingo
- Santa Barbara
| Municipality SAN JUAN/DISTRICTS | Year | Description | Image Number |
|---|---|---|---|
| La Marina | 1839 | Census | 859 Transcription available; see below. |
| Santo Domingo | 1833 | Census | 919 |
| Santa Barbara | 1833 | Census | 992 |
Film Number 1511845, Item 66
1846 Census of San Juan, Puerto Rico residents was located in Film Number 1511845, Item 6. Unfortunately, they were wedged in with records of Utuado. Therefore, they would not have been easily found. Consequently, I decided to index them here and provide them in a separate article. This is the continuation of my previous article; click here. That one covers another set of censuses of residents I found for other towns.
- Districts
- Santa Barbara
- San Francisco (2)
- Santo Domingo
- Puerto de Tierra (3)
| Municipality SAN JUAN/DISTRICTS | Year | Description | Image Number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Barbara | 1846 | Census | 1759 |
| 1-San Francisco | 1846 | Census | 1976 |
| Santo Domingo | 1846 | Census-Empadronamiento del Sr. Arozo | 2156 |
| 1-Puerta de Tierra | 1846 | Census | 2266 |
| 2-Puerta de Tierra | 1846 | Census | 2272 |
| 3-Puerta de Tierra | 1846 | Duplicate Book | 2282 |
| 2-San Francisco | 1846 | Census | 2300 |
Sources
- National Park Service
- San Juan 1508-1898, Aníbal Sepúlveda Rivera
- Photo from JavierPuerto Rico-Wikipedia
- Protecting the Capital, J.E. Marull Del Rio, page 96
- FamilySearch-Film Number 1389436, Items 17-19
- Film Number 1511845, Item 6
- Transcription of Caja 54 items 17 to 19, transcribed by Teresa Castro Sedgwick
Appreciate the effort to sort and index the records. I have found many of these older records are hard to read because the ink has run or they are superimposed on the previous or next page/record. There must be some forensic method that can be used on the original records to determine what is supposed to be there.
A big problem was the quality of paper and ink they used as well, other than not preserving the books. Although my experience in visiting the archives, surprisingly the books were easier to read in person. As you stated the digitization was inferior.
I concur with you comments about documents that are hard to read. One trick that I use is that I go to the tools icon on the upper right corner of the Family Search film that you are investigating and once you click it allows you to control the brightness and contrast. By varying those I am able to get a better image of the records. Give it a try.
[…] This film contains 4263 images. Images about Utuado commence with image number 732 and end with image 1695. Images after 1695 are all duplicates of the same documents for Utuado and include the census from San Juan, which you can find in a separate post. […]
I am not a computation expert, but I was unable to see the indexes, and when I pressed the image number, it says there are no indexes. Una voz que pide ayuda.
Hello Fatima, What you are seeing is a break down aka index of the film, not an index of the individuals. All the census records were scattered in various films and so I just put them all into one table. You will still need to go through the records and search for the individuals in the census. I hope that answers your question. When you click on the Image link, it will take you to the actual census record.